Many people install Linux-based distros on USB drives to use for, largely, basic PC troubleshooting. Has anyone tried installing such a thing on their Android phone's SD card? That way instead of carrying about both a USB drive and a phone, one could simply plug their phone in, boot the PC from USB, and set about performing whatever actions are necessary. Does anyone have any recommendations for particular flavors of Linux which are best suited to this task?

That's a really esoteric use. From what I'm reading, the phone would be little more than the vehicle for the SD card (for purposes of this, anyway). You'd probably have better luck asking on unix.stackexchange.com. I'm not saying it's off-topic here, but it's certainly on-topic there.
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Al E.Oct 22 '10 at 20:14

I think this would be a really cool function for an Android phone. Al is right that you're probably more likely to get an answer over at unix.SE (maybe even SuperUser) but I think the question should remain open here because I look forward to seeing an answer and I'm sure other Android Enthusiasts would too.
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MattOct 24 '10 at 3:23

2 Answers
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As far as I know, there is no Android device that can be put into a USB-mass-storage-thumbdrive-compliant mode (to use the nontechnical term). The phone would need to have a special mode where it emulated a USB drive and handled reads/writes to the SD card and that sort of thing. I can't imagine any manufacturer modifying the hardware and writing the software necessary to support this when the expected return on investment would probably be 0.